You Wanna Buy Some Biscuits?

LEADING OFF: BOOK STUFF

Lately I have been working on a few loose ends from "Black Baseball in Alabama: Rough Diamonds of Dixie" as I felt that there were still too many players unidentified. It's a difficult task, slowly paging through records like census notes to compare with box scores often riddled with typos, misspellings and assumed names, making identification even harder. It's great fun!

As there are many more, even stranger and incredible tales to tell, there is much work left to dig out the details. Such as the annual World Series rematch that took place in Alabama each year. There's also the worlds longest road trip that culminated in a game in Alabama, the history behind the oldest ballpark in the country, the deadly beanball that rocked the foundations of the game, the outlaw league that got Montgomery back into baseball, and the wartime powerhouses that ruled the diamonds with major league talent.

Of course there are the players. Hall of Famers and local legends who have startling experiences in Alabama, unknown players with incredible performances, well known players with local connections and a whole lot of really exciting ballgames. 

I have reached out to dozens of former Montgomery Rebels players and from them have heard amazing, untold stories of their experiences of their playing days in Alabama. The input from players, executives and officials has been an irreplaceable resource and I am so thankful for the participation of those with personal connections. Also, these guys are hilarious!! I think you are gonna love what they have had to say. 

 

FORMER BISCUIT HURLER MAKES PITCH FOR DR. MIRACULOUS 

 The Biscuits are known for great pitchers and Jaime Schultz is among the best to have taken the mound in Montgomery, racking up K's left and right to become the franchise's single season strikeout leader. I reached out to him via cameo to make a pitch for my book and I appreciate the hardball delivery from a pro! Thank you, Jaime! 

 

SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR

To get your very own autographed copy of "Black Baseball in Alabama: Rough Diamonds of Dixie" along with a Dr. Miraculous game-worn* relic baseball card for only $45, you can contact me at any of the usual spots - Instagram or X/twitter as @drmiraculous  

 

BISCUITS NEWS

You have likely noticed a distinct change here at the ol' Montgomery baseball blog, specifically a shift away from daily coverage of the local double-A club. Icymi - this summers Biscuits fell flat and missed the playoffs for the first time in a decade, the longest active stretch of postseason appearances in baseball. It was also the longest active stretch of postseasons without a championship. The Biscuits boast a new single-season home run leader, as Will Simpson drove 26 longballs, setting a new franchise mark.

Adam Liberatore

After a long period of down-low shade it became apparent that a few in the skitz employ didn't have much respect for their most vocal online supporter. Some were even going out of their way to make it harder for Dr. Miraculous to bring fans info and updates (and i haven't even spilled the real gritty tea yet!!). When it got to the point that it seemed unprofessional, I walked away.

It was a frustrating development considering the time invested covering the team, the players, the games and documenting the Biscuits many highs and lows, while also dealing with the challenges facing a free lancer. I'm not ashamed to admit it hurt to feel unwelcome at my local baseball church due to a few spiteful attitudes. 

Perhaps that will change in the future. What won't change is the honest appraisal of baseball found on this blog, I simply call em like I see em. 

So lets get to it then! 

OUT WITH THE OLD

The Biscuits appear to have begun a front-office purge, seeking new occupants for at least a third of the executive offices, including  GM, Food Service Director, Ground Crew Chief and other important jobs that require college degrees and/or specialized technical knowledge. 

This is probably the result of multiple factors that led new ownership to start stripping the club down to match its financial status. Perhaps it is a long-overdue move, as some of the responsibilities seem to have been unfilled, ineffective, or handled by interns for many years. 

It is little surprise that the firm has chosen to make a change, as they surely have a good understanding of the current situation. 

TROUBLED WATERS

I personally haven't attended a Biscuits game in a couple seasons, and I see that I am not alone in my absence. Even the team's own figures seem to work against them, echoing the tale of how a franchise's fortunes have repeatedly faded across different decades, and why.

 WE LOVE OUR BISCUITS... BUT

People are staying away from Riverwalk, excuse me - DABOS Stadium, in droves. The Montgomery club set a new franchise low in attendance this season, continuing a downward trend that has been sliding nearly every year, even if we accept the sometimes inflated attendance estimates.

 Per-game attendance estimates

The Biscuits started strong, but began slipping right away. For more than ten years the attendance dropped with a steady decline until falling hard following the pandemic. With its new owner Lou DiBella, the club was able to tread water for a few seasons. However after Lou sold the team (as your Dr.M predicted) to OnDeck a private equity group (yeah, also called the corporate group ownership), attendance took a dramatic tumble as fans continued to turn away from baseball in Montgomery at an alarming pace. 

Looking at the graph, its no wonder Lou DiBella punted the Biscuits to dull the sound of the waves of people rapidly receding from the area. The friendly and likeable Lou remains with the ownership group as head of its Montgomery project.

How Bad Is It?  

Not going to the park doesn't mean isolation from info. Learning about the Biscuits like we always do, looking at stats, numbers and trends, checking social media, and keeping one eye on Montgomery baseball history gives a good indication of what happens when things go like they do. 

And it's not looking great.

Locals on online message boards are voicing strong opinions, saying what many have been thinking for some time. Most seem to like the team in general, but long for the "old days" when it was fun. They are unhappy with changes to the gameday experience, the prices, the food options, the start times, the nets, the service, just about everything. Some detractors even going so far as to pull for the Biscuits to pack it in completely. 

Reddit being Reddit

 

IT WOULDN'T BE THE FIRST TIME

The Montgomery clubs of the late 1940's and early 1950's boasted excellent attendance. The team won the pennant in '51 and set the citys franchise record with 110k attendance, but struggled afterwards. Crowd size generally correlates to how the team did in the standings in those years. 

In 1954, a new owner took over the team. Hoke Vandigriff personally signed top players who were Black for the first time, painted and improved the ballpark bathrooms/parking lots/fountains, updated the concessions stand, and hired ushers. 

overall season attendance estimates  

The effort resulted in boosting the number of attendees dramatically. Fans loved it and came back to the park in near record numbers in 1954.

 BUT THEN...

The Montgomery Rebels empty seat woes began the year following their integration, when owner Hoke Vandigriff was killed and the new owners abandoned Black players completely, joining a low level, segregated league (1957). Montgomery civic leaders even refused to name the park after the late philanthropist Vandigriff, largely due to his integration efforts, and quickly attached educator/horticulturist Wm. Paterson's name to the stadium instead.

The Rebels decisions to move to a lesser league (the Alabama-Florida League), shun top Black players, increase ticket prices and scale back concessions was as widely unpopular as can be imagined. Fans responded, voicing their displeasure by throwing a very a similar curve to the one Biscuits ownership is dealing with now. 

full season attendance estimates 

 The team was a pennant winner in '59, but couldn't muster even half the fans while playing in the lower level, all white league. There was one improvement for fans with the move to the AL-FL league, the Montgomery city council restored beer sales at the ballpark, since Black fans were no longer coming to watch games in large numbers. In actuality, no-one was coming to watch the games.

When faced with forced integration in 1962, the AL-FL league instead chose to fold the tent and cease operations. Montgomery was without a pro team for the first time since WW2. 

The Montgomery Rebels went defunct due to their inability to give Montgomery baseball fans what they wanted - a good, well-rounded team with strong local connections and financially responsible ownership. 

It wasn't until 1965 that Montgomery would rejoin double-A baseball and truly entered integrated baseball.

THE 70's WERE NO BETTER

During the 1970's the Montgomery Rebels were a powerhouse Detroit Tigers affiliate, winning five pennants in six years and claiming a rare three-peat of the Southern League Championship. 

However, Paterson Field was called a ghost town as fans were given the brush off under an owner who blamed falling attendance for his selling the club to Birmingham. In fact, the Rebels team was drawing some of Montgomery's biggest baseball crowds since integration in 1954.  

But costs had risen, owners said the team was less than profitable, leading the business-minded stewards to make moves that were unpopular with fans. Owners moved in a predictable pattern, raising prices, drastically reducing the food available at concessions, cutting back on staff and nixing nearly all promotions.

Fans responded as they had before, by refusing to buy tickets. 

full season attendance estimates 

 

 The team numbers peaked with the claim of nearly 100k fans overall in '79, due to a marketing scheme involving corporate purchases of bulk tickets to pump up attendance figures. The next year word leaked that a sale of the Rebels was in the offing, fans didn't want the team to leave, and turned out in overwhelming support. In 1980 the team legitimately had over 80k fans for the first time since Hoke Vandigriff's death. 

Yet, regardless of the attendance numbers, the Rebels team was doomed. It was sold and moved after 1980. Montgomery was then left without organized baseball for decades, until 2004's Biscuits arrived. 

THE MORAL OF THE STORY 

These charts tell an important story with an underlying moral for baseball owners: When Montgomery fans are not heard, they will just walk away and refuse to participate. 

Fans will not come to the park, dropping attendance down just a few hundred die-hard baseball bugs a night, if even that many. 

This occurred in the 1950's when the Rebels roster was re-segregated and prices rose, and again in the 1960's when Montgomery continued its segregated team policy and moved to low level white-only leagues while prices again rose. 

Rebels grounds crew Fidrych & Brazell

And yet again in the 1970's when the team raised prices while simultaneously ruining the ballpark experience with cheap hotdogs, warm soda and beer watered down with ice. It has been surmised that driving away fans served the purpose of getting the city to let the team out of the stadium lease early. If so, it worked.  

They were so cheap, when the city refused to continue giving grounds crew service (due to unpaid ballpark rent) the team forced its gameday staff, players and coaches to do the grounds crew work

These Biscuits, however, are in a much different situation.

 

YOU'RE STUCK HERE

Your Montgomery Biscuits aren't going anywhere, they are stuck here. For a while. For a long while.

With an MLB affiliation signed in blood for most of the next decade combined with a rock-solid lease on Riverwalk, excuse me, DABOS stadium until 2040, the Biscuits are staying in Montgomery for better or for worse.

Its unlikely the city would allow the team to leave without paying off the lease, which would be a staggering cost. That would still leave them having to negotiate out of the stadium naming rights deal with DABOS, another potentially costly situation.

Montgomery is centrally located to the Southern League, making travel rather simple. A move within the footprint would be a difficult task, as would convincing a city to build a new ballpark. 

The Tampa Rays have no say in the matter, at least until their affiliation contract is complete. For Montgomery, as long as someone paints chalk lines on the field, the Biscuits will keep playing, even if local fan support evaporates completely.

 

THAT DON'T MATTER EITHER 

Loss of fan support seems to have little effect on MILB teams these days, they simply do not care about that (think back to the Jackson Generals for reference). They say they do, but it doesn't seem to show, even when the fans are speaking loud and clear through attendance.

Incomes are focused largely on luxury boxes, advertising, and revenue sharing (and of course, stadium naming rights deals). There is now a greatly reduced incentive to go the extra mile for hotdog money.

That's also why concession stands often close after the sixth inning. Saving on staff wages is worth giving up hotdog money, and they send the crew home early because fewer people are coming to the games. It's a vicious cycle.

But for longtime fans, ya'll already knew that.

RUMOR MILL & GOSSIP COLUMN

Recently I ran across an unconfirmed story that the Biscuits were looking to downsize the concessions for next season. This report said they planned on offering just soda/beer/popcorn/hot dogs as they tried to replace the stadium eats with local food trucks. However, the word on the street was that the Biscuits expected both a setup fee from the food truck operators for access to the park as well as a massive % cut of each nights income. Obviously, there were not a lot of folks jumping to sign up. No word yet on what plans the team might have shifted to. This is a variation on similar, previous efforts to include local eats that have failed repeatedly for many years. Someone will get this done eventually!

Also on the rumor front is the rampant opinion that the current new owners might attempt to flip the Biscuits to another new owner, preferably a local group interested in the prestige of being top Biscuit. They say this could happen in the next season or two, basically as soon as realistically possible. Scaling back operations also allows a new owner to look like a savior, bringing back the old times and favorite themes. 
 

 SO WHATS NEXT?

The team did begin adding or restarting perks for fans, including quite a few upgrades that I had been suggesting for most of the last fifteen years (including early entry for season ticket holders, guaranteed giveaways and discounts for long term and bulk seat purchases). It's a start, but not nearly enough to bring me back to section 117 with a see-thru bag.  

I have been told that fans today don't care about the players or the teams, but at every game people are asking those very questions while MILB tries to sell sizzle without steak to fewer and fewer attendees.

Unless the Biscuits, like most affiliated baseball teams, can come up with a reason for fans to pull for their team other than thinking Big Mo is funny looking enough to come see, a mostly-empty stadium will be the likely result. 

At least, until they can sell the team. Hey, you wanna buy some Biscuits?

THIS WEEK IN MONTGOMERY BASEBALL HISTORY 

This week marks the anniversary of the Montgomery Rebels demise - on October 22nd, 1980 the team was sold and moved to Birmingham, sending Montgomery into the baseball dark ages. No affiliated pro team would call Montgomery home until 2004. (ouch, babe!)

 

* Dr. Miraculous game worn pants from on-field batting practice with the Biscuits at Riverwalk Stadium now DABOS Field.

I am not affiliated with, employed by, or connected to the Montgomery Biscuits Baseball Club. 

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